Harry B. Soria Jr. — broadcaster, musicologist and Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning liner notes writer and record producer — died Tuesday in Honolulu. Soria had been in declining health for several years. He was 73.

Soria was born in Honolulu in 1948. The son of prominent local broadcaster and hapa-haole songwriter Harry B. Soria Sr., he became interested in the Hawaiian and hapa-haole music of the Territorial Era, covering 1900 to 1959, when he was attending college on the mainland and discovered that some of his fellow students thought the music was “cool.”

Back in Hawaii he asked his father to share his memories and became a voracious collector of Territorial Era records in all formats. Soria appeared on KCCN as a guest in 1976 and three years later was invited to do a weekly radio show, “Territorial Airwaves.” The music came from his personal collection.

“Harry brought all the music of ‘Territorial Airwaves’ to life,” said Hawaii entertainer and longtime radio personality Kimo Kahoano. “He made the songs sound wonderful and brought them to everyone. He did it right.”

KCCN radio personality Keaumiki Akui joined the show as co-host in 1986.

“Prior to that first (show) neither of us had met,” Akui recalled in an email from Arizona. “As serendipity would have it, we hit it off almost immediately and began a 14-year partnership, sharing the music and stories of the Territorial era in Hawai‘i. It was rollicking fun and a huge lesson in traditional Hawaiian music. Harry was the key! I just followed his lead.”

For steel guitar master Bobby Ingano and other listeners, “Territorial Airwaves” was more than entertainment.

“I remember telling Harry that I hope he didn’t mind me taping some of his shows because I had no access to vintage Hawaiian steel guitar music,” Ingano reminisced via email. “He was surprised when I told him that I learned so much on steel guitar because of his show.”

“Territorial Airwaves” changed broadcast platforms several times in the decades that followed. When the show celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019, it was available on demand at territorialairwaves.com.

Although Soria was most visible in Hawaii as the host of “Territorial Airwaves,” his collaboration with Cord International/HanaOla Records CEO Michael Cord was equally important. Cord was committed to reissuing as many out-of-print Hawaiian and hapa-haole recordings as he could lease the rights to and digitally restore for release.

Soria produced and annotated most of them.

“Harry was a walking, talking, living, breathing encyclopedia of Hawaiian music history. My late husband Michael Cord and I loved him deeply,” Maryann Cord said. “For 30 years Harry shared our vision and our passion, and helped us do the work — researching, archiving, preserving and restoring recordings to create over 30 historical anthologies together focusing on legendary performers and songs recorded in Hawaii.”

Soria earned eight Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for his work as a record producer and liner notes writer. In 2017, “Territorial Airwaves” received the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts’ Krash Kealoha Industry Award, and earlier this year, Soria was honored with the Moe Keale “Aloha Is” Award, presented in conjunction with HARA.

Soria’s record collection and archives are being donated to the Hawaii State Archives.

Funeral plans are pending.

“I felt very blessed to have met my soulmate in this life,” Soria’s wife, Kilohana Silve, said in an email. “We were often described as a ‘match made in heaven.’ Sounds corny, but we really appreciated and supported each other in everything.”

He is additionally survived by his stepdaughter, Vanessa Thill, stepgrandsons Kalani and Nankama, sister Camille Miske, niece Maile Zambuto and her husband, Jason Zambuto, and their children Bella and Nicholas.